Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Now that school is back in swing, it's time to look at your child's lunch box and it's impact on the environment. Many typical lunch boxes contain a lot of waste in the form of single serving packages, juice boxes, and plastic baggies. It has been estimated that on average a school-age child using a disposable lunch generates 67 pounds of waste per school year. That equates to 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for just one average-size elementary school. How can you pack a waste free lunch? Start with your lunch box - check out Laptop Lunch systems www.laptoplunches.com. The Laptop Lunches are a lunch system which feature great containers that all fit together to help you pack a healthy lunch. By using the container system, you can reduce the waste of single serving packages and can save money by buying in larger packages. Instead of putting your sandwich in a plastic baggie, check out Wrap-N-Mats a reusable sandwich wrap and placemat in one. Put your child's juice or water in a reusable stainless steel bottle instead of packing a plastic water bottle or juicebox.

Want to make a bigger impact on the environment? Check out ways to encourage your child's school or your workplace to go waste free at www.wastefreelunches.org

7. When you recycle plastic bottles, the caps are thrown away. However, now Aveda has come up with a way to recycle them into shampoo and conditioner bottles. Recycle your caps at your local Aveda store - for more info check out http://aveda.aveda.com/aboutaveda/caps.asp

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Several employees at Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics stores around the country went naked last week to get the message out: packaging is a waste. Staff wore white aprons with the words "Ask me why I'm naked" as part of a promotion to draw attention to the fact that the store's bath and beauty products largely come free of packaging. Lush has many products formulated into bars, cakes or balls which can be sold without packaging. Some products are cut from a large cake and sold by weight. Lush sells solid shampoos, solid bubble bath, soap without packaging, and even massage oil bars. According to literature from Lush, packaging contributed to 2 percent of overall greenhouse gases and plastic uses 8 percent of the world's oil resources. The U.S. consumes 79.6 million tons of packaging a year, with more than half sitting in landfills.

So do you need to shop naked to help the Earth? No, but remember the naked idea when shopping.